Is there any holiday that is less grounded in anything than New Year’s Eve? It celebrates what? The completion of an orbit around the Sun? But every day does that, so we’re really just celebrating having picked an arbitrary day to celebrate. Yay for us. We made it around the Sun again. Good job, Earth!

What a sorry excuse for getting drunk.

So, in the spirit of the season, I offer the following content-free meta-resolutions:

I will make good resolutions this year.

I will follow through on those resolutions.

If I do not follow through on them, I resolve to make better resolutions next year.

21 Responses to “My meta-resolutions for 2010”

It’s celebrating a non-achievement that could be celebrated on any day. Why not have a distributed New Years in which it’s celebrated a little bit every day? Or no New Years? Or the Yay Summer festival where at least we’re celebrating something we like, namely the arrival of summer?

(“Whatâ€™s wrong with picking an arbitrary day to celebrate?”) “Itâ€™s celebrating a non-achievement that could be celebrated on any day.”

Right. And we choose to celebrate it in on Jan. 1.

“Why not have a distributed New Years in which itâ€™s celebrated a little bit every day? Or no New Years? Or the Yay Summer festival where at least weâ€™re celebrating something we like, namely the arrival of summer?”

Those sound fine. Why don’t you organize those? But the answer to the first question, though, is that if everyone agrees on one date, it’s a bigger party. And we are celebrating something we like: The New Year. Just because it’s an arbitrarily chosen date — some people celebrate it in February, others in September — doesn’t mean it’s ridiculous or that we’re all deluded.

King, I didn’t use the words “ridiculous” or “delusion,” but I accept your reading of this, which indicates poor writing on my part. I was only being a little grumpy, partially to explain to myself why this holiday means so little to me and partially for entertainment purposes. I don’t think people who celebrate it (as in fact I do — we watched “Frost Nixon,” which was pretty good) are fools.

Bileg, yes, I have poor taste in colors. On the other hand, if you you saw me in person and didn’t like how I was dressed, would you tell me that I’m dressed in the ugliest, most garish clothing you’ve ever seen and tell me to change my clothes? Why is it different on my blog?

Anyway, I’m not going to redesign my site around your tastes, especially since I already give you a variety of choices. Why not read it in your favorite RSS reader? Or try the Readability bookmarklet.